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Tag Archives: Kronoform Watch

It feels really good to be able to finally start catching up with writing articles here at Branded. Over the past few years there’s been a lot of changes in my life behind the scenes, and in particular a lot of stuff has been going on over the last six months including helping my girlfriend sell her townhome, securing a new job, and the one that has been the most frightening and fulfilling, buying my first house. But the dust has begun to settle, I’m in the middle up setting up a new and improved Branded HQ, and I can get back to what I’ve missed the most, writing about all kinds of fun 80s junk. In fact I’m currently having a blast revisiting some of the cool stuff I’ve acquired that I’ve been meaning to write about. For instance, a very cool new (well, vintage) watch that I’ve been wanting to reconnect with for the last 25 years…

Back around 1985 or ’86, I was pretty obsessed with getting my hands on the amazing transforming robot watch depicted in the Bonkers candy ad above. I first saw these in the little red candy and trinket vending machines at my local Pizza Hut as the “main” prize, the one thing you could get out of the machine for a quarter where you’d actually be getting more than your money’s worth. I can’t count how many quarters I sunk into these machines only to get endless amounts of plastic army men, colorful puffballs with glued on felt feet and googlie eyes, or generic pencil topper erasers. I was never a lucky kid when it came to winning stuff like this. And here’s the thing, from my estimation at the time, you had to either win one of these robot watches or convince your parents that it was safe for them to send a check or cash to Nabisco to score one. Lets just say that I could never get my parents to believe that these comic ads were not a scam.

At the end of the day I did eventually end up getting one of these watches by trading some Garbage Pail Kids to a friend, though it didn’t have the watch band and it looked like he had chewed on the little blue and red buttons on the front. None the less I cherished that red robot watch and kept it in my pocket for years. It didn’t matter that the one I had was used, or that it wasn’t an official Kronoform watch (a fact I wouldn’t even be aware of until 20 years later when I really started getting nostalgic for my youth.) I’m not sure what happened to my specific watch, but for the last 10 years or so I’ve been yearning to get a new one. The thing is, they’re kind of rare and when they do pop up on eBay they’re kind of outrageously priced. So I’ve been biding my time, waiting for the right opportunity. That opportunity happened a couple of months ago after I posted the Bonkers advertisement above on my instagram account. I mentioned how I wanted to get my hands on one of these and a very kind gentleman from Canada that goes by the handle No_Thriller had just scoped one at his local toy/comic store. After working out the details No_Thriller picked up the watch for me and then shipped it down to the states where I was eagerly awaiting its arrival! And yes, that is also an awesome Steve Nazar signed print of the T&C characters in the background that my good bud HooveR sent and that also arrived that day…

Not only did this one still have the watch band fully intact, it was a beautiful almost brand new official Takara Transformers Kronoform release! Also, it still worked (the super kind No_Thriller was nice enough to replace the old battery before shipping it.) Even though this one isn’t red, I still love it to pieces…

Even though I’ve seen a metric ton of flicks from the 80s, there are a lot that I’ve never seen. One of the cool aspects of catching up with these movies is getting to see some established actors before they were huge, and in some cases seeing them in roles that give me a whole new appreciation for them. A couple years ago I did just that when I saw Laura Dern as a young post-punk rock star in Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. It totally changed my outlook on Mrs. Dern and it’s sort of given me a taste for redefining my outlook on some stars that maybe I don’t give enough credit. Well this past weekend I curled up next to my girlfriend Jaime while she introduced me to the campy 80s dance flick Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and at about four minutes in I found an entirely new appreciation for one Mrs. Helen Hunt!

Literally, Jaime and I were about five minutes into the flick when I did a spit take (well, would have had I been drinking anything at the time) and freaked out after noticing Hunt wearing a very awesome piece of jewelery that I myself sported back in the 80s. Her character, Lynne Stone, is sort of a Cyndi Lauper lite, free spirited, takes crap from no one, and has a wickedly fun fashion sense. Though the film focuses mainly on Sarah Jessica Parker’s character Janey, I kind of immediately fell in love with Lynne and I’m basically already writing the fan-fiction sequel flick in tandem with this article. Also, since I’ve sort of been locked in a mode of finding all sorts of fun junk in the background of movies I thought it would be fun to point out the six aspects that make Hunt’s Lynne Stone such a rad character…

#6: Her Crush on C. Thomas Howell

But then again, didn’t we all have a crush on C. Thomas Howell?

#5: Her Transforming Catholic School Uniform

The scene where Lynne rips off her school outfit and flips it to form an entirely new outfit is pretty cool, as is her line: “Velcro. Next to the Walkman and Tab it’s the coolest invention of the 20th century!”

#4: Her Awesome Headgear

Giant grasshoppers, 50’s coonskin caps, and Dinosaur barrettes are just a smattering of the awesome things you’ll see on Lynne’s head throughout the flick.

#3: Her Babysitting Technique

Get to job, put on Dance TV, place baby in pizza box, take absolutely no messages for her employer. That’s the way to do it.

#2: Her Taste in Lunchboxes

I have to say that the 8 year-old me who was carrying a Masters of the Universe lunchbox to school, if he’d crossed paths with a teenaged Helen Hunt with the same lunchbox, well, he (I) would have fallen in love and then fainted. Seriously, I love that she’s carrying that lunchbox!

#1: Her Amazing Taste in Kronoform Watches!

Not only did I have the same lunchbox as Lynne, I also had that same knockoff red Kronoform transforming robot watch!!! (Also, note the rad dinosaur headgear…)